Best Month of the Year

DISCLAIMER: There are a lot of pictures in this post.

I love Fall and especially October. I've always liked Halloween and dressing up and I like that you get to start wearing some of your warmer clothes (for some reason they're just cuter than summer clothes) and the colors as the leaves change are so beautiful. So in honor of October, this may turn out to be a long post.

The first weekend of October, we decided to host another Oktoberfest with the help of some friends (by use of their house). In our trip to Seaside the weekend before, we found the jackpot of gourmet sodas, namely root beer, so we went a little crazy getting a bunch of different kinds. These were used strictly for tasting. We also had the local or more popular brands available for those who wanted a whole bottle all to themselves. We had a really great turnout and had everyone bring a German-inspired dish to go alongside the bratwursts. It was a lot of fun and we'll have to see about carrying the tradition on when we move to new places. (BTW, if you haven't heard, Mark found out he got his internship site in Washington DC where we'll be moving to in August.)

We also took advantage of the local pumpkin patches in the area and ended up going to a couple different ones over the course of the month. Sadly, I only took pictures at one. This was the first one we went to, Lee Farms, with our friends Heather and Acacia. They had delicious apple cider doughnuts (and the apple cider wasn't too bad either). We bought tickets to go on the hay ride, but after doing so we found out that they didn't start till later in the afternoon. Instead, we decided to use our tickets up by letting the girls play in the bounce house and Cee got to ride on a pony. I wasn't sure how she'd react, but she loved it and was so sad when it was over.

As Halloween approached, Cee and I were invited to a mother-daughter witch party. I can't remember if I had already decided to be a witch, or if I decided to be a witch because of this party, but that is what my costume was this year. I was going to have Cee be my black cat, but found this cute witch dress for her and couldn't pass it up. She liked to tell people that she was going to be a "little witch" and mommy was going to be a "big witch" and daddy was going to be a hot dog (we had seen this hot dog costume at the store that apparently stuck with her). Haha. It was pretty funny.

Cee got the hang of trick-or-treating much better this year and for weeks afterward would ask if she could go get more candy in her bucket. She was the cutest little witch around. Needless to say, she's already excited for the next Halloween.

The big event of the month (at least in the planning process) was a Halloween Party that we threw (again with the use of our friend's house - not the same one for Oktoberfest though just in case you were worried). I had actually been tentatively planning this for almost a year when I had seen a Halloween episode of Martha Stewart that had some great ideas. I was worried that if we did Oktoberfest, it would decrease the attendance at the Halloween party because they were both the same month, but we had a few different people request for us to do Oktoberfest again so I gave in. Unfortunately, my worries came to fruition and there were quite a few less people at the Halloween party (they totally missed out!). Part of this may have been due to the fact that costumes were required, but come on people, it's Halloween, get with the program!

Anyhow, it turned out good, although I continually need to work on my time management skills so that things are actually ready when people start arriving. Someday I'll get it down. We didn't award prizes for best costumes at the party, but here are my picks.

Dave and Michelle for Best Overall

(their three kids were Luke Skywalker, Princess Leah, and Yoda and they were so cute!)

Sean and Kim for Most Creative

Emily and Josh for Most Obscure Political Figures

(a few people thought that Josh was Sayid from Lost, but they were actually Fidel Castro and Che Guevara)

Mark's and my costume

(Wizard and witch if you can't tell)

Below are a lot of pictures of the food and decor that I'm posting for a few friends that couldn't make it and have asked to see pictures. Sorry, there are quiet a few.

(those are supposed to be flames on the side, not leaves)

The specimens table behind me followed by close-ups